[Annelle]

lol -- there's a few different surgeries that people do to get eye correction. I had to explain to a few different people that PRK is different. They were all like "well my (friend, sister, cousin, etc) got it done years ago and they were fine after a few days"

There's Lasik, Lasek, PRK, and something that implants a lens into your eye. Might be more, but the only thing that most people know is that a surgery for correcting vision exists. They likely don't know "how" it works, or that there's a whole list of types of surgeries that can be done. My boss was even asking me "So why is your recovery taking longer than normal? One of my girl friends had your surgery and was fine in a few days." (her friend had the implantation surgery) I was told straight up by my doc, "your recovery will take 3 months. I've had other patients come back irritated that even after telling them 3 months, that they weren't able to see anything after a week. As long as you are realistic about recovery, you will do fine. You WON'T be able to see very well at all for at least a few days (barely even functioning status -- and he was correct. We're used to seeing 20/20 because we can depend on our glasses/contacts to give us that 20/20)

As of last week (at my 1 month post-op appointment), I was 20/30 in my right eye and 20/40 in my left.

Lasik stories I've read the next morning was pretty bad (they sleep the rest of the day of surgery), but by that afternoon/evening they're able to see great. I was also told that the implant surgery people recovered fairly quickly too. The thing about PRK is that you actually need to regrow that outer layer, which takes time.

I learned recently (probably should have done more research on my part, honestly) that with Lasik -- that flap doesn't actually heal itself up. It just stays there permanently cut, and everybody just hopes it won't move out of place. The reason my doctor doesn't do Lasek is that there's absolutely nothing to at least make sure the flap is still attached to the eye, whereas with Lasik, at least if it tries to move, there's a small piece of the flap to prevent it from falling completely off.

I guess basically you're now forever needing to be more careful around your eyes, as any eye damage could cause flap displacement.

With PRK, no flap was made, and the cells that were removed all grow back on their own, so it's technically "safer" post-healing.

I mean, granted, most people go throughout their lives without major eye injuries, but everybody's been accidentally jabbed before, and everybody knows somebody who's gotten a black eye. Makes me kind of glad I went the PRK route in that case.

And definitely no -- Probably week 3 was when I started feeling confident about my vision.

Week 1 was horrid for vision -- that's when everything was growing in and I felt like somebody had put jelly all over my eyes and fogged everything up and made everything unbelievably bright. Week 2 the fuzziness/jelly feeling was dissipating, and able to see well enough to not only move about from room to room but be able to tell what I was moving around. I couldn't read the labels on anything, but I could see that there was in fact a label with writing on it. (before, I definitely wouldn't have made out words, and I may not have made out a label)

I'm down to using the wetting drops maybe one bottle every few days (I have the sensitive "single use" things so that they can be used as often as needed, without preservatives which can harm your eyes if you overdose on them. One "bottle" has like...6-7 drops worth in it) During week 3 I was using about a bottle and a half per day. (I'm at the end of week 5 now)

I've been told to avoid opening my eyes under water, but I'm fine with pretty much everything else. (Good with swimming even as long as I keep my eyes closed under water. He told me I could wear swimming goggles, he just said don't go scuba diving or something, because of the additional pressure.) I noticed this morning when I first woke up that my eyes really didn't want to open for a good 5 minutes or so. (might have been the sudden brightness from being asleep all night to daylight?)

I'm now able to read the words on the backs of my makeup bottles and such with minor difficulty. (without any difficulty, I can read them about as well as I was able to read them with great difficulty on my last post. Still not perfect vision, but still really clear) I feel like I can actually focus on things and have certain things come in "clear" now...but it's like...a lot of things in my peripheral vision tell me "still blurry"

Don't expect a fast recovery. I'm actually kind of excited at how far I've come along within the first month. I'm at a point now where if I had this level of vision all my life, I probably would have never known I wasn't of "normal" vision. I can read small print, and see distance. (Distance is actually better than close up, because you expect close up to be clear, and distance is far away so you don't expect to see every little detail, so it's less noticeable.)

Yeah, from what I remember, on Saturday, it felt like I had an eye lash or a piece of makeup or dirt stuck on my contact lens. Like the biggest piece of dirt ever. And normally I take out my contact lens, rinse it out, and I put it back in and I'm okay. I couldn't pull it out, since the bandage contact lens was there and I couldn't do anything about it. It's definitely a survivable pain.